


When all is Said and Done

by godtiermeme



Category: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 19:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13037457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godtiermeme/pseuds/godtiermeme
Summary: A brief glimpse into the lives of four people after the unannounced discovery of Atlantis.Above ocean level, a man and a woman chase a cat. Below the waves, a couple debate the merits of traffic laws.





	When all is Said and Done

**Author's Note:**

  * For [awildneko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/awildneko/gifts).



> This is my first Atlantis fic, so I hope this isn't too bad.....

The familiar automobile repair shop is brightly lit; every light is on, though it’s late. This, Joshua Sweet thinks, walking up to the sturdy wooden door, is strange. Then again, he has been called to help. He’s unsure of what, exactly, he’s helping with; but, he knows he’s here to help with something. One hand rubs the back of his neck, while the other rises to knock.

However, before he can continue, the door swings open. A slender, lightly tanned hand reaches out and grabs him by the tie. An outsider might be surprised by the amount of power the small figure pulling him inside has, but he remains nonplussed. As he stumbles to a stop inside the store, he fixes the sky-blue crystal affixed to his tie. “What’s wrong?” he asks, quirking a thick, well-arched brow.

Before him stands a relatively small woman. Her frame is slight, yet the tension in her muscles betrays an immense amount of power. “Milo’s stupid cat,” she grumbles as she tangles her hands in her thick, curly black hair.

Joshua hums nervously. “You do know I’m a doctor for _people_ , Audrey? You didn’t forget that?”

“I know that,” the woman snaps. “The cat is fine.”

“So, then, the problem is?”

Now, Audrey raises a brow. She gestures vaguely to her throat.

Joshua pauses. For a moment, he’s puzzled. Then, realization dawns upon him. The rare stone, which she usually wears as a necklace, is gone. “You’re not saying what I think you’re saying. _Please_ tell me you’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”

“Well, I can’t read your mind! What’re you thinking?”

“That the cat ate—”

Audrey laughs. “No, it didn’t _eat_ it. But it _did_ take it.”

Joshua breathes a sigh of relief. His shoulders relax. “Great, so we’re looking for the cat?”

“Exactly,” Audrey nods. Then, she hands him a flashlight.

With his task now clearly assigned, Joshua begins the search. He kneels before a large metal cabinet and shines the beam of light underneath. Seeing nothing, he stands and moves somewhere else. In doing this, he sees that Audrey is also searching, though he’d expect as much. Allowing a house cat to play with something as powerful and valuable as a shard of Atlantean crystal is dangerous.

“So, Sweet,” Audrey says.

Joshua, having already gotten onto the floor to search beneath another metal cabinet, simply hums in response.

“You didn’t sell your stone? Weren’t you going to use the money to make your future mansion?” Audrey mutters something else under her breath, though it’s unintelligible.

“I thought it looked nicer on my ties,” Joshua snickers. He prepares to say more, only to spy a flash of white. He falls silent and shines the light in the appropriate direction. At this point, he finds himself staring directly at the cat. As expected, the leather strap of the necklace is clasped in its mouth. The stone reflects the flashlight’s beam with almost ethereal brilliance. “I found Fluffy.”

“Fantastic!” Heavy boots clop against the concrete floor. The sound stops when Audrey is beside Joshua. She kneels down, peers beneath the cabinet, and sighs. “Why did I get the cat?”

“Because no one else wanted it.” Joshua dusts his hands off and stands. Without second thought, he grabs onto the cabinet, easily tilting it to allow Audrey enough space to grab the now-hissing cat. “Probably for a good reason.”

Audrey rolls her eyes. She pulls the necklace free from the cat’s mouth, puts the animal down, and fastens it back around her neck. “Whatever. Thanks for helping me, Sweet.”

“No problem.” Joshua grins. He offers a lazy two-finger salute before eyeing the blue stone over. He meanders over to a workbench and leans against it, folding his arms across his chest as he continues, “I wonder how Milo is doing.”

“Whatever he’s doing, it’s probably weird,” the woman smiles.

* * *

Clad in a plain, sleeveless shirt and a pair of very, very old slacks, Milo Thatch sits on a large, smooth rock. His glasses are fraction of an inch from where they should be, but he makes no attempt to correct this. Instead, he focuses his attention on the woman before him.

The edges of her lips are pulled into a skeptical smile. “So, what you’re saying is you think that we don’t know how to drive?”

“That’s not _exactly_ what I said, Kida,” mutters Milo. “What I said was that the aktiraks are unorganized. I’ve almost been run over by someone else at least three times!”

Kida’s smile widens. “Perhaps it is _you_ who cannot drive.”

Milo prepares to protest, only to find himself at a loss for any sort of comeback. He shrugs. “Okay, yeah, that _might_ be it. But, what if we just made some traffic laws.”

“Traffic laws?” Kida asks.

“Yeah, like all aktiraks drive on one side of the road.” Though this had seemed like a foolproof idea in his head, once it’s been spoken, Milo realizes how useless it is. His hand slaps against his forehead. “We don’t _have_ roads.”

A quiet, gentle laugh precedes Kida’s reply. “That would be correct.” She steps forward, sets a hand on the man’s shoulder, and rolls her eyes. “Aboveground, what sort of vehicles did you have?”

“We had cars. You saw some of them. They’ve probably changed by now, but that’s what we drive.” Now, Milo fixes his glasses. His tense muscles relax as sturdy hands massage his back. “And we had lines on the ground, so you knew which side to drive on.”

“Why take set routes, when you could go the fastest way?”

This question causes Milo a moment’s pause, though he eventually finds some semblance of an answer. “It’s rude to drive across someone’s lawn, and you’d get lost, anyhow.”

“Yes, the surface is much larger…” Kida shrugs. Her hands pull away, and she sits beside Milo. “Air-based travel is most efficient, though.”

“Maybe not for us, yet,” Milo comments. He chuckles as he imagines a world of haphazardly piloted planes zipping in every direction. “Fuel is still a concern, and it’s not economically viable to give everyone an airplane, anyhow.”

“I suppose.” Kida, again, laughs. “Perhaps, one day, we could visit the surface.”

Milo nods. Though he has never considered the possibility, now that he has, he finds it appealing. “That sounds nice,” he says, wrapping an arm around Kida.


End file.
